Istanbul: A world center of great value in the past as well as in the present

Coming from a country like Egypt made me think that I will never be amazed by the culture of any other country in the world. In a city like Cairo we have The Giza pyramids , we have monuments as all other museums in the world combined, we have Greek, Roman, Christian, Jewish and much much more monuments that no one could ever count. But when I traveled to Turkey I have to admit I was really impressed. The City has culture, amazing culture. Not to the extent of Egypt as it will be unfair to compare but still a very cultured country specially Istanbul.

Istanbul embraces Asia on the one hand and Europe on the other. Founded on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BC as Byzantium, the city now known as Istanbul developed to become one of the most significant cities in history. For nearly sixteen centuries following its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 AD, it served as the capital of four empires: the Roman Empire (330–395), the Byzantine Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). It was instrumental in the advancement of Christianity during Roman and Byzantine times, before the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453 and transformed it into an Islamic stronghold and the seat of the last caliphate.

Istanbul in 20 pictures: A world center of great value in the past as well as in the present

Pictures for the landmarks of Istanbul - Turkey, the pictures are the inside of the Sultan Ahmed Mosque(blue mosque), Hagia Sophia mosque and many other mosques around turkey.

Hagia Sophia is a former Greek Orthodox patriarchal basilica ,later an imperial mosque, and now a museum. From the date of its construction in 537 until 1453, it served as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople,[1] except between 1204 and 1261, when it was converted to a Roman Catholic cathedral under the Latin Empire. The building was a mosque from 29 May 1453 until 1931. It was then secularized and opened as a museum on 1 February 1935